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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Is Ugly Fabric Contagious?

Sue handed me some fabric one day stating, "We don't use this stuff in New England, but you're from Texas..." Backhanded compliment? Downright slam? I didn't care. The colorful pattern sang to me; I knew just what to do.

Three years later I returned to Texas with unused fabric in tow. Why hadn't I made the quilt dancing in my head? Then the Quilters Guild of Dallas offered a workshop with Sue Benner - the perfect time to get it done! In Sue's class we all used the same quilt layout but brought photos and fabrics to translate our personal vision. In the morning we took turns showing them. Everyone else previewed gorgeous batiks in sumptuous colors to a chorus of oohs and aahs. Silence fell when I showed the braid and these orange slices I picked up in a Ben Franklin sale bin.

Sue encouraged us to design a story with the small squares. At the time my youngest sister lived in a ski chalet on a dude ranch just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. (What a tough life!) Her balconies overflowed with flowers and vines. My small squares made a picture of the final mile of the road trips to her house.

New to the guild and engrossed in the process of transferring my feelings to a quilt it was lunchtime before I realized I was the only person with a table to myself. This is one way to get lots of room in a workshop.